Science Gallery bets all on risky show

IRELAND’S ERSTWHILE elite of bankers and speculators would provide ideal test subjects for one of the four exhibitions that will go on display at Trinity College Dublin’s Science Gallery next year.

“Risk Lab will explore our ability as humans to access risk,” according to the gallery programme, published yesterday. “Risk Lab will involve a series of experiments and exhibits enabling visitors to explore our inability to determine the probability of everything from a car crash to a coin toss.”

Speaking at the event, Riverdance director John McColgan asked whether the countrys economy would be in such a precarious state if “our friends and colleagues in Nama” had a better sense of risk.

The Science Gallery, now in its fifth year, will host three other exhibitions in 2013. Oscillator, beginning in February, will look at why everything in the world vibrates. Illusion, in July, will focus on “the neuroscience and physics of illusion”, and in October Living Machines, under the stewardship of Prof Anthony Dunne and Prof Paul Freemont from Imperial College London, will explore synthetic biology.

Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan said the influence of science in fostering creativity in children would go some way toward revitalising Ireland.

“Science can be vibrant and exciting and can capture the imagination,” he said.

He praised the gallery’s funding and support model, which draws backing from corporate sponsors, including The Irish Times, and the Government.

The gallery showed how a new concept could be built to become one of the best cultural initiatives in Ireland, he told the audience of students and academics.

Prof Linda Hogan said the gallery played a key role in increasing the presence of science in Dublin, adding that it provided a “gateway between the university and the city”.

Michael John Gorman, founding director of the Science Gallery, said plans were afoot to create an international network of eight such galleries where science and culture could come together.

David Dalton from accountancy firm Deloitte said companies like his had “compelling reasons” for taking an interest in science initiatives. Companies were increasingly looking for graduates with backgrounds in analytics, risk, technology and the digitisation of companies, he said.